Montana State Capitol by Parkerdr, licensed under CC
Montana has started off the year strong under Governor Gianforte’s leadership, and its only looking to get more exciting for taxpayers. Public sector unions are an issue that republicans have struggled decades to reform. Fortunately for those who have been wanting for change regarding organizations which are so liable to corruption and waste, a bill currently going through the senate, SB-277, seeks to overhaul the state’s policy regarding public sector unions, ensuring that the government serve its constituents first and foremost.
SB-277, introduced by Senate President Matt Regier, would revoke the requirement in Montana law that government employers deduct union dues from their employee’s payroll. It should go without saying that forcing the government to fund and beget organizations that, by their nature, lobby against taxpayer interest for the sake of unelected government employees, is representative of a system in need of serious reform.
To begin with, state budgets are created by elected officials. Elected officials are beholden to the people first and foremost. However, public sector unions are not obliged to negotiate in the interest of the people, meaning that they completely bypass this necessary order.
Governments don’t have a profit motive, meaning that the primary incentive to save costs which would exist in the private sector does not exist. To make matters worse, government entities are restricted in ways that the companies are not and thus can’t combat unionization when it would be economically harmful. These factors lead to negotiations favoring the unions, as the government has very little incentive or ability to resist their demands, resulting in deals that cost taxpayers more than they would have agreed to.
Even more insidiously, unions use their dues to donate to democrats. The Montana Federation of Public Employees (MPFE) donates millions in campaign contributions and other grants. Where do these donations go? Directly into the pockets of the very Democrats who support them.
When governments collect union dues from their employees paychecks, it allows unions to functionally confuse public sector employees into joining. For starters, employees simply need sign their name and they never even have to think about their dues — it will be collected from their paycheck for them. Often, union membership is presented as mandatory in the orientation process, or in approximately 40 cases, contracts blatantly lie to prospective employees, claiming that union membership is a condition of employment.
These facts become bleaker when one factors in that the most significant portion of these dues goes directly into government lobbying and donations, meaning that many Democrat elected officials have an explicit incentive to keep things the way they are.
Luckily, SB-277 represents a significant blow against democrat-union corruption in Montana. With any luck, these bills will pass and signify Montana’s intent to go further.
